Book

How You Can Prevent, Prepare for, Respond to and Recover from Damage to Your Home

What would happen if your house burned down last night? Or your basement flooded? Or a tree fell through your roof? You never know what’s going to happen or when it will happen.

Disasters happen all the time, all over the country, from mega-disasters like Hurricane Katrina to mini-disasters such as kitchen fires. Over 8% of households filed insurance claims in 2006. These figures do not include the cost of property damage that homeowners chose not to file as insurance claims. All this adds up to tens of billions of dollars worth of damage to homes every year and the numbers are going up. The odds for homeowners aren’t good. Bring up the subject of home insurance claims and you will find that just about everyone you talk to either has had damage to their home or knows someone else who has. Everyone has a story to tell. Unfortunately, it is usually a tale of woe. We never know what is going to happen or when it will happen. But, that does not mean we don’t have any control. We do.

“What Would You Do If Your House Burned Down Last Night?”

This book is a one-stop how-to resource that guides homeowners through the process of preventing damage to their homes, getting ready just in case, and learning what to expect and what to do if disaster strikes. This is the culmination of everything John and Winnie Melesh have learned over 30 years of helping homeowners with structural insurance repairs.

Our hope is that by teaching homeowners how to prevent damage, they can avoid the expense and heartache that follow disasters. And by preparing homeowners for unavoidable disasters, the road to recovery will be straighter and smoother. Our book will provide homeowners a greater sense of control at a time when everything seems to be completely out of control.

Winnie focuses on training the family as a whole and includes important lessons that parents can teach their children such as safe daily practices as well as how children as young as three years old can learn to respond to disasters.

The book also includes information on planning and response for elderly as well as those who suffer from medical, physical and mental disorders.

Of course, Winnie has included planning for our pets.

Anyone who has had an property insurance claim can tell you that getting the claim settled and repairs made can be a difficult task. Information included in the book can make all the difference in helping homeowners negotiate the insurance claims maze more easily and get life back to normal quicker.

Lastly, a section of the book focuses on how the strengthen the structure of the home itself. The stronger the structure is the better it can resist the forces of Mother Nature and other hazards and provide better protection to those who live there.